THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA (1970)

BLOOD ON MY SHOES (SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS) Jess Franco, 1983

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

FURY IN THE TROPICS/OUTLAW WOMEN (Jess Franco, 1983-1986)

FURY IN THE TROPICS (1983) was Jess Franco's final attempt at a Women-In-Prison film, a genre which proved commercially successful for him with the release of 99 WOMEN (1969), written and produced by Harry Alan Towers. A hit in America and other territories, it spawned numerous imitations from Europe and other territories, including from Franco himself. It was sometimes double billed with Robert Altman's psycho-thriller THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK (1969) in North American Grindhouses and Drive-ins. Even a decade and a half later both FURY IN THE TROPICS and its reworked version OUTLAW WOMEN (1986), would exhibit numerous plot elements and characters introduced in 99 WOMEN. There were three distinct versions of this film, including the re-edited OUTLAW WOMEN (1986), and a hardcore porn version, ORGASMO PERVERSO, another reworked version which included hardcore material for that market and was released in Spain on video by Valfer Video, according to OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO. According to FLOWERS OF PERVERSION, VOL.2 THE DELIRIOUS CINEMA OF JESS FRANCO neither of the non-hardcore versions found any theatrical release in Spain or anywhere else. In other words, give up all hope of any versions of this obsure project coming out on DVD or Blu-ray. Nonetheless, both of the non-hardcore versions have been available on bootleg VHS from such companies as EUROPEAN TRASH CINEMA VIDEO in the U.S..

The corrupt, sadistic prison Governor (Ricardo Palacios), the even more sadistic prison matron, modeled on Mercerdes McCambridge in 99 WOMEN, the guard who sides with the inmates (Antonio Mayans), they're all here. The huge Palacios has a bestial quality and enjoys raping the inmates in his private office. Not the most brutally sadistic of Franco's WIP's, that would be THE WOMEN OF CELLBLOCK 9, which focuses on sexual torture, or GRETA, HAUS OHNE MANNER, featuring Dyanne Thorne as a pathological fan of torture. Both of the 1977 films were feeding the torture porn cycle of the mid 1970s which included Nazi-xploitation items mostly made in Italy. Franco continued on with SADOMANIA, EL INFIERNO DE LA PASION (1980), featuring Ajita Wilson as Magda, the lean, mean administrator of the Hacienda Blanca, where female inmates are forced to work under the hot sun clothed in tight shorts and topless. This one is probably the most "entertaining" of the bunch simply due to it's surreal outrageousness, including an inmate raped by a dog.

The most interesting aspect of FURY IN THE TROPICS is its non-linear structure. It opens with the prison escape of Marga (Lina Romay), who has murdered the lesbian prison wardress. The rest of the films is flashbacks to her arrest and abuse by the wardress, focused mainly on her private parts. These graphic scenes are trimmed from the 1986 reworking, OUTLAW WOMEN. This version flips the the "happy" ending of FURY IN THE TROPICS into a downbeat, poetically edited climax as Marga, revealed as a contact of a revolutionary padre, is shot dead on the orders of the Governor while the priest's demise is represented by a final montage of streams of blood flowing toward a crucfix intercut with the sun being covered by dark storm clouds. A much more memorable closing than the one in FURY IN THE TROPICS. Another "Franco" moment occurs during a brief montage of a very Catholic display of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the home of Father Rodrigo. These are very minor, very guilty pleasures which may or may not be compelling to those outside the circle of Franco completists. The atmospheric cinematography is the work of Juan Soler Cozar, according to OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO.

A Franco related WIP would appear in the 21st Century with the 2007 release of WOMEN BEHIND BARS 4, ANGEL OF DEATH 2, PRISON ISLAND MASSACRE, produced and directed by Franco friend Andreas Bethmann. Filmed in the Dominican Republic, Lina Romay is top billed as a twisted prison wardress, dressed in military fatigues, who orders hideous tortures of inmates. Jess Franco has a small role as inmate/janitor. Romay sports of military buzz cut while overseeing forced sex between two female inmates in one scene, masturbating with her pistol with which she finally shoots one of the inmates in the forehead. Another grisly scene shows the torture of a male inmate by another male who anally rapes him before pulling out his teeth with pliers. It also features hardcore sex scenes such as the opening in which a female hitch hiker is forced to peform oral sex on a prison associate. It's all rather nauseating Eurotrash of the lowest order. The gore effects were skillfully designed by the notorious Olaf Ittenbach. How Jess and Lina decided to partner with Bethmann is a profound mystery.

(C) Robert Monell, 2025

THE DEMONS (1972): X RATED KULT TWO DISC DVD SET

-------------------------- So you thought that Ken Russell's THE DEVILS (1971) was the ultimate sex-violence-witchcraft-crazy nuns historical epic. Jess Franco's 1972 THE DEMONS/DIE NONNEN VON CLICHY/LES DEMONS is equally outrageous and 100 proof Jess Franco, at least in its full version. There are a number of versions of this impressively framed (by Cinematographer/Director Raul Artigot), thoroughly depraved immersion into the corrupt 17th Century English government, equally corrupted convents, rebels and horny nuns running around for nearly 2 hours (in the longest version). We'll be looking at the three versions released as a 2 Disc DVD set by Germany's X RATED KULT company in 2004. This set also includes the Director's Cut (101 minutes), which has since been released as a stand alone. Then there's the 2014 Redemption Blu-ray, which is actually missing some brief, but crucial, footage included in the 2 disc set. Not to mention various VHS releases from the U.S. and some European companies.

----------------------------------------------------- My original DVD REVIEW, written when the X RATED KULT two disc set was brand new: Two young women (Anne Libert) and Margaret (Britt Nichols) are convent bound young women whom Lord Jeffreys is informed are the spawn of an 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. All the sex, nudity and violence is present in this uncut print. It should also be noted that this version has some shots which were not in the Redempton Blu ray print. Disc 2 contians a new "Director's Cut", re-edited and rescored by Franco in 2003. He replaces the anachronistic electric rock score of Raiteux with synthesized cues from Daniel White-Jess Franco scores for GEMIDOS DE PLACER, BARBED WIRE DOLLS and other titles. This constitutes a fascinating, self-reflexive, musical commentary along with a new Spanish language track featuring Jess Franco himself dubbing Howard Vernon's character! At 101 minutes it cuts the outrageous Doris Thomas' masturbation scene in the long version (over 4 mn) to 1mn and also loses some expository scenes. 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. Note that the masturbation scene is not essential to the film's plot but it does point to the direction Franco would take in his subsequent films. Stretching out erotic sequences as delirious interludes of sexual pleasure examined by his ever probing telezoom lens would become one of Franco's personal signatures during this period and well into the 1980s films. It's more than just a time saving tool here and in such films as LA COMTESSE NOIRE and LORNA THE EXORCIS. It becomes aesthetic signage of Franco's intense focus on a temporal-spatial dimension which takes the viewer out of the plot and the linear vector into a kind of musical representaton of sexual energy as the primary emotion in the scene. 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. All three versions are letterboxed at 2.35:1 (although it may appear as wide as 2.50 on some monitors) 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"

----------------------------------------- Considering that THE DEMONS is actually a remake of his 1970 THE BLOODY JUDGE/NIGHT OF THE BLOOD MONSTER, with Christopher Lee playing the role of the historical Witchfinder General, Judge Jeffries, the acting and staging here is not as theatrical as it is in THE BLOODY JUDGE. Here the Judge is played by the Iranian actor Cihangar Garffari (John Caffari), who doesn't have quite the psychological grasp which Lee had on the character. Franco decided to create an updated cut in 2003, eliminating over 10 minutes of footage from the full 114 minute version. The English language version opens with the prog-rock style electric guitar powered Jean Bernard Raiteux score heard over the opening credits. The score of the Spanish language version is credited to Franco, Daniel White and Ezekial Caldas, a replacement score overdubbed by Franco for this "Director's Cut." I have to admit this cut of the film is not my preferred way to view. It loses much of its unique atmosphere as a result of the Franco approved replacement score and shorter length. The newly recorded Spanish dub track is also technically and aesthetically inferior to both the English and Franch tracks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is perhaps misleading to view THE DEMONS as merely a remake of 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 is quite wooden compared to Lee's performance. The film stands as a fresh interpretation in its own right and something of a stepping stone in the Franco multiverse. In an inteview 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. At 101 minutes it loses some of its 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. Maybe Franco considered it more updated and marketable in this reedited-rescored cut. 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 and German language options are 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

------------------------------------------ There's also an extensive file of alternate takes, missing shots and footage, additional credits and image galleries which alone makes this boxset worth searching out.

(C)Robert Monell, 2025 .

REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF FRANCO- Part 2

Let's begin where we left off at the end of my first blog post on the evolution of this Jess Franco project. Listen to what Franco himself has said about the three versions, one of which remains lost in the mists of time.

Taped in 2008, Franco's comments (click on CC for English subs) were made some 25 years after the fact. Here were my final comments, keeping in mind that I still haven't seen the Blu-ray release of NEUROSIS: REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER. No one has seen, and probably never will see, the original version which had a disastrous showing at Imagfic 1983. So what we have left are a Blu-ray edition of the radically reedited Eurocine version, which is far from the director's original intent. A number of nearly unwatchable videos of LOS CRIMENES DE USHER, sans credits or proper English subtitles, while the director's original version, heckled to death during its debut over 40 years ago, seems forever lost. It remains doubtful if Franco's first reedit, LOS CRIMENES... will ever appear in a restored HD edition. The supposedly haunted Castillo de Santa Catalina still stands and does business as a parador in Jaen. Franco did return to his Dr. Orloff mythology in his 1988 larger budgeted gorefest, FACELESS. Perhaps REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER, as hopelessly compromised as it is, can be viewed as the director's last desperate attempt to expand and evolve his original version into something approaching critical analysis. It must be remembered that he still had nearly 30 years ahead of him to continue to film various comedies, horror, war films, neo-noirs and outright experimental videos during his final digital era. That said, the Eurocine cut is much less interesting, both as an adaptation of a literary work and as what has become known as a "Jess Franco" film.

It's important to watch this interview before reading the rest of this post. Franco says that the original cut was his most "personal" film, and also his least commercial one. He calls his version "a poem" based on a poetic story by Edgar Allan Poe. We'll be discussing both the limited Spanish release of the LOS CRIMENES DE USHER version along with the existing Eurocine cut. The Eurocine cut I've seen is the DVD seen next to Franco in the interview, the 2001 "Euroshock Collection" REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER Image Entertainment release. It's an interesting irony that a film which the director considers his most personal and was made not as a commercial project ia only available in its most commercial and least personal condition. The first cut I saw with the 1993 EDDE DVD, ZOMBIE 5 (not to be confused with the 1987 Joe D'Amato/Claudio Lattanzi zombie film, featuring Robert Vaughn and made in Louisiana). The back of the box features a still of Franco murdering a victim in the 1979 DEMONIAC/THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME! My first impression was one of extreme disappointment and confusion. It seemed that there was too much Jess Franco and not enough "Jess Franco". Probably the best way to work our way back to an approximation of the original 1983 cut is to take a look at the 1928 Jean Epstein and the 1960 Roger Corman versions.

Before going to the Epstein and Corman versions it's important to note here that the reshot CRIMES OF USHER did indeed have a Spanish theatrical release circa September 1986. Records tell us there were a paltry 5,430 tickets sold before this version disappeared from sight. This contradicts the claim in FLOWERS OF PERVERSION: THE DELIRIOUS CINEMA OF JESUS FRANCO, VOL. 2 that, "For reasons that are still unclear, Los crimenes de Usher failed to find distribution, making it the only version of the film never to have been shown or released officially." Not only was there a theatrical release, there is a public record of attendance. Understandably, the time elapsed since this very limited release makes research difficult. The best way to see this second version is probably via the VSOM bootleg, titled REVOLT OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, which is at least English subtitled and relatively watchable. This contains all the added footage from THE CRIMES OF USHER and footage from the original cut.

Epstein's THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, co-scripted by the great surrealist Luis Bunuel, is a visually fascinating approach to the Poe story. However, LA CHUTE DE LA MAISON USHER is a rather difficult to absorb film.. Running little over an hour this silent version is heavily influenced by Expressionist/Romantic Art, as were the previous silent films of Fritz Lang (DIE NIEBELUNGEN) and F.W. Murnau (NOSFERATU, FAUST). Some versions have color tinted sequences which are very atmospheric and evoke the toxic mists of Poe's original story. There are numerous superimpositions and painterly tableau throughout. Two sequences often noted by critiques include the death and final interment of Lady Usher, during which time seems to stop as the dead swamp surrounding the Usher mansion is explored. Cutaways to such dwellers as frogs, who are seen copulating in the dismal tarn, are included acting as disturbing reminders that the natural world goes about its own reproductive business. It's really worth watching it with it's tinted sequences intact. Next, we have to consider Roger Corman's 1960 adaptation. Corman's HOUSE OF USHER opens with almost the exact same shot, from the same angle as Franco three USHERs, in a smiliar devastated environment, of the protagonist (Mark Damon) riding toward the cursed mansion.

Two films Franco mentions as his inspiration in the above interview were F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU (1922) and Jean Epstein's 1928 adaptation. Both films examples of expressionist style in the silent era. FLoyd Crosby, the cameraman who shot Corman's USHER also shot Murnau's expressionist tragedy TABU in 1930. But expressionist films were not what horror movie audiences wanted by the 1980s when gory slasher films were the rage/

Corman's USHER is a fairly close adaptation of Poe's story. Usher is played with restraint by Vincent Price. Howard Vernon's Usher is very different. In his audio commentary on the HOUSE OF USHER DVD Corman makes a point of mentioning that he did not want any reality in the settings or in the way they were photographed. He also mentions that he was guided by Freud's theory of the unconscious mind in his staging. Franco's film goes even further, Vernon's performance as the 175 year old Usher is very expressionistic, he could be a character in such silent horror films as THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI or F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU. There's an irreal flamboyance in this Usher's movements.

For THE CRIMES OF USHER Franco shot three additional scenes where Usher murders three local women. He's a stalking vampire who haunts the area. Vincent Price's Usher never leaves the mansion. There's a very morbid eroticism to the scene where he murders a prostitute after licking her outstretched leg and foot. As her head hangs over the bed the camera focuses on her mouth open in pleasure which suddenly turns to horror as Usher produces a large knife, skewering her again and again, lapping the blood off the blade as if it were needed nourishment. It's very grotesque, a repulsive representation of the parasitical nature of vampirism. Fangs aren't needed by Eric Usher to commit his bloody crimes. The parador in Jaen where the interiors were shot represent the unconscious mind of Eric Usher. The only "normal" characters in the film are Alan Harker (Antonio Mayans), the housekeeper (Lina Romay), a doctor (Daniel White) who attempts to treat Usher and a child (Flavia Hervas) who becomes another victim of Usher's bloodlust. Then there's ghoulish female vampire (Fata Morgana) who menaces Usher. This may be a red herring but one thinks of some references (see the review in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HORROR FILM) to a scene where Harker finally burns the body of Usher's dead wife. This scene does not appear in any of the extant versions. It was possibly cut out when Franco made THE CRIMES OF USHER iteration.

The ultimate destruction of house is represented by a few quick zoom ins to some cracks here and there in the walls to suggest crumbling masonry and a lot of shaking of the camera which gives the impression of an earthquake. Eric Usher is simply blotted out of the proceedings. There is no attempt to show the house sinking into the surrounding tarn as in Poe's story and Corman's adaptation. This may be a disappointing finale to some viewers but I would disagree with OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO which states the film fails as an expressionistic experiment. That is the most interesting aspect of the three vesions which Franco made. There is no "deep and dark tarn", as Poe wrote, which closes over the fragments of the house. The darkness is there in every image in the film, lurking beneath the surfaces and in the subconsious mind of Eric Usher.

ALONE AGAINST TERROR (1983)

The shadow of Dr. Orgaf (Ricardo Palacios), a distant relative of Franco's iconic Dr. Orloff, lurks over Jess Franco's 1983 psychological thriller, SOLA ANTE EL TERROR.

Jess Franco has managed to produce numerous remakes, semi-remakes and rebrandings of his own films throughout his career. SOLO ANTE EL TERROR is a 1983 remake of his third film featuring Dr. Orloff as a medical villain, LOS OJOS SINIESTROS DEL DOCTOR ORLOFF (1973), which already had plot elements from NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970). Shot in Barcelona and the Canary Islands, LOS OJOS... has always struck me as the weak link in the original Orloff quadrilogy which includes GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (1961), EL SECRETO DEL DR.ORLOFF (1964) and EL SINIESTRO DR.ORLOFF (1982). In any case, it's not an "official" remake of the earlier film. It exists more as a reimagining of the same character in an overall similar plot. Set in the archetectural labyrinth of Ricardo Bofill designed buildings, Xanadu and La Muralla Roja in Calpe. OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO sums it up as "A remake of LOS OJOS SINIESTROS DEL DR. ORLOFF minus the acting skill of the original model which was already tedious." The 1973 film is indeed slack and very low on the rich and strange atmosphere of Franco at his very best. 1983, however, found Franco in a more inspired mode, with more personal Franco projects in production, including his minimalist-Gothic version of Poe's THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, which emerged as LOS CRIMINES DE USHER), and two very personal and stylish neo-noirs CAMINO SOLITARIO and LOS BLUES DE LAS CALLE POP (aventursas de Felipe Marlboro, volumen 8).

An unapologetic remake of THE EYES OF DR. ORLOFF, SOLA ANTE EL TERROR is in some ways a more experimental iteration of the same story and characters. Greed, mind control and tragedy are the governing themes in SOLA ANTE... as they are in LOS OJOS... only the mood is more heightened and downbeat. The abstractions of the Bofill structures are alienating and jagged edged. William Berger was excellent and well cast as the unethical Dr.Orloff in LOS OJOS... in SOLA... the hefty Ricardo Palacios as Dr. Orgaf, resulting in a less exotic depiction of a favorite Franco villain. He seems to have stumbled onto the plot by Melissa's sisters to drive her mad and grab her inheritance, after Orgaf signs the committments papers. But plot and character are on the back burner of Franco's oven this time. Instead, an atmosphere thick with suspicion, personal betrayal, unfulfilled love and psychic tension fill the runtime. The paraplegic Mellisa (Lina Romay), pushed around in an infant stroller rather than a wheelchair, becomes a pawn in the hands of her evil sisters, Orgaf and the magnetic pull of her murdered father and her younger, innocent self (embodied by Flavia Hervas) intruding to drive her to vengeance. At the chronological halfway mark of Franco's feature fim career, things were changing inside the mind of the prolific director.

Mind control and Cinema as psychoanalysis are always major themes in the filmography of Franco, going all the way back to EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF (1964), in which a student of Dr. Orloff creates a violent radio controlled robot who murders several exotic dancers when activated. Mind control scenarios are also prominent in MISS MUERTE (1965), SUCCUBUS (1967) and KISS ME, MONSTER (1968). The scenario of ALONE AGAINST TERROR also resembles the 1969 Franco script THE NIGHT HAS EYES, noted by Francisco Cesari and Roberto Curti in their book, THE JESS FRANCO FILES, VOL. 1, FOUR SCREENPLAYS AND A SYNOPSIS BY JESS FRANCO (VIAL BOOKS, 2017. The book traces the literary roots to the 1941 novel by Cornell Woolrich (as William Irish), NIGHTMARE. Elements of the plot also appear in several American film noirs, such as NIGHT HAS 1000 EYES (John Farrow, 1948). THE NIGHT HAS EYES was filmed by Franco as NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970), an outstanding psychoanalystic crime-drama featuring impressive performances by Paul Muller and Diana Lorys as criminal mastermind the exotic dancer whom he uses to eliminate his partners in a crime. The plot of a vulnerable woman whose unconscious mind is used to achieve a double cross was further developed in THE EYES OF DR. OLOFF (1973) and MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE (1983).

While not as stylistically poised as MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE, featuring Jess Franco himself as the psychiatrist who saves the programmed killer (Lina Romay), a psychic in the grip the deadly clutches of her manager (Daniel Katz), at the last minute. Melissa (Romay) in ALONE AGAINST TERROR, dies tragically as she attempts to put a stop to the plans Dr. Orgaf has for her future. What's more interesting here is that Franco seems more interested in creating an overwhelming atmosphere of confinement and paranoia than he is in retelling the same story with different actors. The Bofill structures become psychic entanglements between imprisonment and death. No happy endings here. Most interesting of all is the way the characters of the young Melissa (Flavia Hervas) and her father (Antonio Mayans are integrated into the present tense of the film. They seem to exist in a kind of parallel dimension rather than a prosaic "past". At one point we see the adult Melissa photographed in the foreground of the limestone landmark EL PENON DE IFACH, jutting out of the Calpe coastline, the camera lens imperceptibly moves toward her and then slightly pans to reveal the young Melissa standing in the same position, magically, or so it seems, occupying the same spatial-temporal unit in an unbroken shot. No editing or special effected needed. The film concludes with the now united dead father and remembered daughter walking away from the preceding narrative construction. What could have been is as crucial at this point as the tragic end suffered by the adult Melissa. But that would be another film, and this would be the final time Franco returned to this story and these characters.

The Penon de Ifach, iconic landmark in Spain and iconic location in the filmography of Jess Franco.

(C) Robert Monell, 2025

THE VENGEANCE OF DR. MABUSE (Jess Franco, 1972) Kino Cult Blu-ray

Although the title of the new Kino Lorber Cult Blu-ray is THE VENGEANCE OF DR. MABUSE, the film contained within is not Jess Franco's LA VENGENZA DEL DR. MABUSE (1972). It's the reedited, redubbed German cut prepared by producer Artur Brauner, who rejected Franco's director cut. The oncreen title of this version is DR.M STRIKES.

LA VENGANZA DEL DR MABUSE Blu-ray release: hot jazz bursts, dreamy lounge interludes, frenetic percussions written by David Khune aka Jess Franco. See the Spanish version first, if you can find it, before seeing/avoiding the recent Blu-ray, which was re-edited by the producer who hated Franco's director's cut. This version also has redubbed German dialogue which changes all of Franco's original dialogue and story. The story now takes place in America and they're talking about invading Mexico! They hired a new director to shoot additional scenes of a shoot out during a robbery and people talking in offices. All this additional footage is shot like a bland TV movie. Then they had a new editor cut it all together without Franco's involvement. This Producers cut was released in Germany . The Spanish director's cut was only briefly released in Spain and is now in the Spanish Filmoteca. I have the director's cut on video from VSOM. The Bluray has good video quality but is a mess. They should have included Franco's version as part of the release. Hopefully someone will contact a company like MONDO MACABRO or Severin to do a proper release

LA VENGANZA DEL DR. MABUSE, the original cut of this film, is a very interesting oddity, a very low budget sci-fi thriller, Jess Franco style. It opens with waves crashing onto a rocky shore (the film was shot in Alicante, Murcia and Barcelona) as lounge/jazz music, including some soft saxophone notes, vibes, lull the viewer into a receptive state until some bursts of le jazz hot sax stylings are later scored over action scenes. This score (which is altered in the Blu-ray version) was written by Jess Franco, as David Khunne, with an uncredited Daniel White (according to OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO) creates a mood unusual for a science fiction-crime film. Style usually dictates content in the arcs of the Franco filmography, rather than vice-versa. The mise-en-scene of this film was affected by the low budget and initial demands of the producer, CCC CEO Artur Brauner, who presented Franco with an original treatment. Franco's response was a film which osscilates between the visual style of a B western and a Pop Art sci-fi film. I found my original review of LA VENGANZA DEL DR. MABUSE on the now defunct DARK WATERS website. It might be constructive at this point. This was written and published in 1998: -------------------------------------------------------------------- (a.k.a. DER MANN DER SICH MABUSE NANNTE; DER DOKTOR MABUSE) In a remote lighthouse lab, criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse conducts mind control experiments on women who are kidnapped by his assistants. Mabuse uses a mineral from stolen moon rocks (!) to create a ray that turns people into obedient zombies. A stripper, a witness to one of the abductions, in turn becomes the next victim. Under Mabuse's telepathic guidance, she seduces an American diplomat. These rapidly escalating events are investigated by Thomas, the local Sheriff, who finally manages to locate the hideout. Mabuse is killed during a melee involving his brain damaged henchman, and the lab explodes. This obscure feature represents the last gasp of the long-lived Dr. Mabuse franchise, which had seen better days in the Fritz Lang thrillers of the 1920s and 30s. Franco's movie has a very rushed look, For intance, one scene is partially obscured by a section of the lens-cap which appears not to have been properly removed. Also, when the cops arrive at Dr. Mabuse's hideout, the shadow of the Manuel Merino's camera falls over the arriving police car. There's more: Some amusing touches include Mabuse's hulking henchman, Andros, who, with his sewn-up skull cap, looks like a refugee from a Hammer horror entry. The Red Garter "nightclub," which is just a parking garage with a few chairs and tables placed inside, is the setting for Ewa Stroemberg's minimalist striptease. The office of the local Sheriff (Fred Williams) looks like a leftover from some spaghetti western, and Williams appears throughout the film in a cowboy costume. Despite these curiosites -- and that Jack Taylor is miscast as Mabuse-like mad scientist -- the action is punctuated by a decent jazz music score, as well as some impressive photography. Most interesting are some extremely wide-angle compositions in Mabuse's lab and during the abduction scenes, which distort spatial relationships and employ lighting and color in a way which anticipate Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. .................................................................................................................

Despite some similarites between A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and LA VENGANZA's visual styles I doubt if Franco had seen a pre-release of Kubrick's film or read the original 1962 Anthony Burgess novel before making his film. Orson Welles, a Franco mentor and favorite filmmaker, used similar wide angle lensing and shock lighting in his 1958 Film Noir, TOUCH OF EVIL. That said, Franco's film is not really an adaptation of the Dr. Mabuse character created by Norbert Jacques in a 1921 novel. Fritz Lang made an epic length, two part film based on the book in the early 1920s when a dissatified character was in prison waiting to take over Germany, create the Nazi party and war machine, launch World War II and operate concentration camps where millions of Jewish people were exterminated. Lang made two more Mabuse epics, THE TESTAMENT OF DR MABUSE in 1933, which Hitler admired so much he offered Lang the leadership of the Nazi film machine. Lang declined and slipped out of Germany for a career directing Hollywood films. Lang returned to Germany in 1960 to kill of Mabuse in THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE. THIS film was Lang's last but producer Artur Brauner, who ran CCC Films, produced 5 more Mabuse adventures during the 1960's which unfolded in descending order of interest. Brauner also became successful producing numerous German Krimi films, gritty crime stories which became boxoffice hits in Germany and Europe.

In 1970 Brauner decided to resurrect the Dr. Mabuse character for a new generation and gave Jess Franco a treatment to direct, which he did in late February, early March, 1971. Brauner resented that the film didn't follow his treatment and hired a team of directors and editors to shoot new scenes and reedit the footage as DR. M. Strikes. That is the film presented on the KINO CULT Blu-ray. Here is the copy on the back of the slipcase: [A criminal mastermind (Jack Taylor, Female Vampire) deploys poison gas and a beautiful whip-wielding assassin (Beni Cardoso) in a plot to steal government secrets in The Vengeance of Dr Mabuse (Dr. M schlägt zu). But his elaborate schemes risk unraveling when a small-town inspector (Fred Williams) stumbles into the scene. An unauthorized entry in the Dr. Mabuse cycle, the film makes no reference to Norbert Jacques’s clairvoyant criminal (the M-word is carefully avoided). Instead, director Jess Franco used the project as a chance to revisit his own sci-fi thrillers (The Awful Dr. Orlof, The Diabolical Dr. Z). Fold in a disfigured henchman (Rocha), a striptease dancer (Ewa Strömberg, Vampyros Lesbos), and wrap it all in a feverish jazz score, and the result is a spicy cinematic mélange that could only have been concocted in the demented mind of Jess Franco.]................................................................................................................

The name Dr. Mabuse is not mentioned in either the German version or LA VENGANZA DEL DR. MABUSE. Instead Spanish horror regular Jack Taylor is Dr. Farkas in the latter, who stages a wild west type of robbery (helped along by toxic gas) of "moon rocks" from a delivery van from the a local scientific institute. He is "the man who would be Mabuse" as a translation of the German shooting title indicates. The German version mentions that coded plans which Taylor, renamed Dr. Cranko, is seeking to sell to international criminals in Mexico. When it is discovered that the scientific plans may be encoded, Dr.Cranko panics and sends out the thugish Andros (Moises Augusto Rocha) on a kidnapping spree to leverage some blackmail. The name Andros references Franco's 1964 THE SECRET OF DR. ORLOFF, where a radio controlled robot named Andros was the center of attention. There's also a Dr. Orloff in this film, as a legit scientist who is attacked by Cranko's staff. It should also be noted that the violent kidnappings here are staged and edited to reference Franco's first horror film, GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (1961).

The western atmosphere is established by a pan shot over a sunbaked desert plain to the Spaghetti Western style police station of the local Sheriff (Fred Williams), who is assigned by his superior, played as a cigar chomping taskmaster by Franco himself, to investigate cascading situation. Williams, who had already played the lead in Franco's previous Brauner production, THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA, an action krimi with Soledad Miranda in her final role, is not an exciting actor. Dressed in cowboy gear, inhabiting an office interior which seems out of Howard Hawks' RIO BRAVO, he's there to re-establish the Euro-Western motif. Working in the shadow of Fritz Lang and Sergio Leone may not be as much fun as it would seem. The subsequent action toggles between a B Spaghetti Western, a B minus sci-fi film and a minimalist crime-action adventure. Nontheless, Franco manages to maintain interest in the comic book proceedings via frenetic pacing, tilted, color gel lit camera set-ups and non-stop esoteric in-jokes for genre buffs and Franco fans. All of these arcane references in the Spanish dialogue are wiped in the German language dub. The improv-style jazz-lounge score helps to maintain some kind of aesthetic cohesion. As Franco himself noted, he considered himself a musician-composer who made films. The rigidity of the cast inhabiting the ramshackle sets suggest a fun visit to a cinema theme park at a run-down carnival. So, go ahead and collect this Blu-ray if you must, maybe it will hold you over until a composite or a restored double disc LE appears in the near or far future. (C) Robert Monell, 2025